president. pledging to improve the lives of all within the country also. was the most amazing. scene. two weeks after a tragic school shooting in connecticut. but it's not. driving them abroad but rather.

a very warm welcome to you from all of us here. the president has signed off on a bill aimed at u.s. citizens accused of abusing the human rights of russians it includes a ban on americans adopting russian children and the restrictions came about after washington introduced travel and financial sanctions against russian officials it alleges are involved in rights violations. oh earlier the president said he saw no reasons why the bill shouldn't be passed and signed it on the next day after the final draft got into his office and now starting from the first of january american citizens suspected off while ations off the rights of russian citizens will be banned from entering russia the bill also introduces

financial sanctions and restrictions on n.g.o.s and non commercial organizations with foreign sponsors and also the article which has been more stocked about the ban for all americans to adopt russian children for the past few weeks russian society and even the political elite have been split over the issue and there have been many cases of abuse of russian children and sometimes even deaths after they're brought to the united states and russian president has been saying that this bill is not aimed against people or children but it's aimed against the american system due to a lack of a proper legal reaction from american authorities to these cases including the a lack of heavy jail sentences and other problem is that russian officials are often not even able to monitor what happens to russian children after them to the u.s. one of the reasons behind so much debate around the ban is also that many people are concerned with the state of orphanages in russia and along with signing this

bill the president also release a degree aimed at improving the lives of orphans in the country lawmakers from the beginning have been saying that this is a response to the magnitsky act bans passed recently by american lawmakers city game was russia more of work for a foreign investment fund he was suspected of money laundering but died in prison before a court could make a decision on his case is seen by many in the west especially united states as a victim of various human rights violations and the act basically gives the green light for sanctioning a russian official suspected in the us of being connected with human rights violations in. moscow by many officials it's seen as another a russian law because it's really not clear on what grounds this black list of names is that is being put together and also we know that some of the names are going to be classified altogether. so you could go to reporting right there well as

the investigation continues into the death of sort of magnitsky in prison moscow court has acquitted a jail doctor of negligence leading to loss of life of russia's presidential council on human rights concluded that magnitsky had been severely beaten and denied medical treatment while he was held in prison the judge said that she found no evidence of the doctors actions caused the lawyers death and the family has promised to appeal the ruling. now a former director of american adoption congress told us that tracking how russian children are being treated in the u.s. is all but impossible bases have got there.

could inflict on another was done to these children so these were the parents that were caught and prosecuted nineteen how many more there is there is absolutely no way of knowing the united states has no system of follow up on adoptions once an adoption is finalized the child is considered as if born to that family. you're watching r.t. now gun sales have skyrocketed in the u.s. after barack obama urged a ban on some firearms in the wake of the sandy hook school massacre as artie's nature can now explains that is ultimately backfired on the american president.

about two weeks ago actually on this particular wall here. they are it's four rows down four rows across. with everything going on in politics right now with the possible ban and everything everyone is flooding in. purchasing right away gun stores all across the u.s. are reporting record sales just two weeks after the tragic shooting at the elementary school in newtown americans are scrambling to buy the same type of weapon that adam lanza used in the connecticut shooting plus high capacity magazines and a lot of them panic buying trigger it out of fear that the white house is out to ban the weapons but this time the words need to lead to action no a r fifteen for this customer all sold out at the store while prices on line have gone through the rules have been going for a thousand and fifteen hundred eight hundred dollars to twenty five hundred three thousand dollars even in some cases it's just the most amazing gun buying spree

i've ever seen so many gun retailers now quite cynically refer to feed ministrations ben talk as the obama gun stimulus that's how good it's been for their business so how do you go from a president with a tough gun control agenda to someone gun dealers call the greatest gun salesman in america manufacturers of semi-automatic rifles were poured that their market has grown thirty percent of the last four years states like north carolina i need you to have seen a one hundred percent increase in gun sales over the same period in the wake of the tragedy in newtown one of the country's biggest ammunition suppliers said they sold more than three years worth of magazines in just three days. although president obama himself has so far failed to act on his pledge to ban assault weapons his words have certainly provoked action just not the type you may have wanted or someone they say is against her. going to great job for us.

maybe there should be a third term in order to sell even more weapons many dealers hype up the gone apocalypse scenario so the banks and their government. to start. start with. but many of them don't actually see any drastic changes happening any time soon after all any significant gun control measures enough that in the past ultimately clashed with the second amendment of the constitution and were subsequently scrapped. well from virginia to utah where one group has come up with their own unique way to prevent more shootings by introducing even more guns to school but that's giving them to teachers at the gun rights advocates have decided to launch shooting lessons for teachers in case of an emergency you can let us know what you think we love it when you get involved with stories here about so you just look on to the

website give us your opinion in the comment section. anyway. so ten minutes past the hour moscow time iran is holding a fresh round of naval drills in the strait of hormuz one of the world's busiest oil and gas shipping routes the week of war games involves warships submarines jet fighters and aims to show tehran is well equipped to defend its. orders the drills come as the west systematically builds up pressure on iran over its nuclear program and we can i get more on this now and talk live to professor side mohammed already from the university of tehran a pleasure to see you today sir thanks for coming on the program let's talk about these exercises here we're talking about

a routine event or perhaps is there some significance to the timing. well they are routine in the sense that they happen very regularly but the timing is always important i think that the iranians want to remind the united states and the europeans that continued threats against the iranian people threats of military attack by saying all options are on the table. will if they are carried out would have a very significant and severe response and any aggressor against the iranian nation would face severe consequences and the same of course is true for the israeli regime i think the place where the. military operations and the maneuvers are being carried out is also significant because the iranians want to remind western regimes that the oil any

war or battle in the region would be devastating for the oil and gas market and the world economy with that i mean that's exactly my next point because again as you say iranian officials are often wall that they could ultimately block the shipping through the strait of hormuz which as we understand carries about forty percent of the world's seaborne oil if you really think that option is still on the table do you think iran could indeed try and block the strait and in the wake of israeli and american aggression. i don't think that it's obvious that the iranians don't want to block the strait of hormuz at all and the passage of oil and gas the problem is that if western. regimes carry out aggression or are aiding a great. and against the country they have bases throughout the persian gulf and they have interests in the region and if the interests of ordinary iranians are damaged or destroyed if iranian targets are damaged and destroyed then they will

have to face the consequences and those countries that support american actions or where american bases or ships are they bear responsibility for any form of aggression i don't think it's so much the strait of hormuz if you look at the persian gulf nations from the north to the south the iranian borders and if there is if there is war without a doubt or oil and gas cancellations tankers all of these will be devastating and it's far more. important the damage that could be brought about than just blocking it so that i mean they're not just that but also the massive regional and worldwide economic implications as well professor marandi and just a few words is there is that not do you think a danger of military confrontation between iran and the west in the coming year barack obama he's in the white house for another i never on yahoo when israel has elections coming up as well and of course never a few months go by when netanyahu doesn't readily say but towards terror on what

you guess. well in the sense that western countries are brutal and civilized enough to carry out an attack i think that that's clear to the iranians the fact that western countries are imposing sanctions on the bar go on and on iran trying to prevent iran from even importing and exporting medicine and food stuffs by blocking the central bank and there are shortages of some medicines right now in iran and people have died so the fact that the western countries are willing to kill ordinary people and to make people suffer i think makes it clear that the idea of carrying out an attack on iran is something that they would contemplate if they could but i think on the other hand the iranians believe that western countries are much weaker today than they ever were before the defeat in iraq and afghanistan setbacks in. israel had in lebanon and gaza make as well as the economic crisis in europe in north america make it highly unlikely

and i think the international community is gradually growing more independent of western policies and there's a new powers rise it makes it all the more difficult for western powers to launch a new war but the iranians have prepared themselves and i think that itself has been a deterrent to war so they i think in general the iranians feel that a military assault on iran aggression would be highly unlikely professor sidebottom around in the university of tehran which we have more time for this but we don't thank you very much for coming on our team to you for having me. well i still have for you this hour here on the program washington's financial stability it's close to the edge that's the united states moves closer to the fiscal cliff congress and the president still struggling to find common ground. plus russia pushes damascus to intensify talks with the opposition to stop the ongoing violence amid reports of fresh bloodshed and other news after the short break.

if you're from my generation or younger and you were born into the one percent that i have a lot of college debt i sure do you know the deal used to be that you paid a significant amount for education but in turn that gave you a much higher salary later but now the system works in reverse many young americans study very hard to not make any money at all around nine percent of americans with student loans have defaulted and at least nine but maybe up to eighteen percent are ninety days late with their payments given the situation the people at u.c. berkeley were nice enough to give away a million dollars in scholarships for everyone everyone that's an illegal immigrant yeah that's right if you're born in america then pay to jump the border and enjoy

the red carpet education treatment the people who will be getting the scholarships are mostly the children of illegal immigrants who spent many of their formative years in america and yeah i could see the logic that could be hard for them to get an education when they're when they aren't citizens but they came into the country illegally it isn't taxpayers jobs to help them but wait berkeley it's a private institution so i guess they can give out the money to whoever they want whenever they want however they want but berkeley management if you're watching this i would really appreciate if you chose some financial mercy to american citizens it isn't like they don't need the help. that's just my opinion.

thanks for joining us here on our to today i'm rory sushi in moscow a growing number of wealthy britons plan to wave goodbye to the u.k. over the next two years and move their lives and their money elsewhere and more than a fifth of the country's millionaires are considering emigrating that's according to a recent survey by lloyds t.s.b. international bank. explains what exactly is making the rich luxury luggage.

blame the dismal weather that's reportedly the overwhelming reason for why one in five british million as a considering upping sticks and leaving the country now those reasons are followed closely by the high rate of crime in the u.k. and antisocial behavior and then another reason why they might want to leave is the high cost of living here in the u.k. and only in fourth place for my why they might might want to leave is the high rate of personal taxation now where are they going well top of the list of destinations is france it's nearby and it's warmer weather and same goes for spain which is the other place where they're all thinking of flocking to followed by the usa now we didn't manage to track down any millionaires but we hit the streets of london to talk to the ordinary londoners to ask whether they were considering opting sticks and leaving as well and it looks like most of them agree with the millionaires so let's take a listen to what they told us you consider leaving the u.k. . what reason the climate for second the dark vision.

would you consider leaving the u.k. and leaving somewhere else i'm going to do really what is the reason my wife. my children but also the expense here looks like the middle class professionals are the ones who are actually packing their bags and leaving a recent report by the home office said that more and more middle class with professionals are actually packing their bags and opting to continue their careers elsewhere and for them the main reason is the high rate of personal taxation so it's the millionaires are the ones that don't like the rain then is the middle class professionals the senior managers the academics the scientists that are actually continuing their careers abroad and a lot of business leaders are saying that if the high rate of personal taxation isn't cut it's going to lead to a brain drain for the u.k.

in the future so something that's very worrying for politicians to consider here. now there was. just a couple of minutes. the syrian government. ready to talk to opponents

in a push for a diplomatic solution to the conflict by speaking to the foreign minister said it's not up to foreign nations to decide the future of syria. we actively encourage the syrian leadership to make as concrete as possible is declared readiness for dialog with the opposition also asking when will the international community make up their minds that bashar assad should go in with respect to the international community is the syrian people who should make that decision or the international community should not be instigating one of the sites to continue bloodshed will set any preconditions they should instead encourage all the fighting assad is to follow the geneva statements which set conditions for the syrians themselves getting all political ethnic and religious groups have got to agree on which kind of state they want to live in. criticized reluctance of syria's opposition group backed by the west to make any concessions

in the civil standoff the syrian conflict has dragged on now for nearly two years with reports of fresh bloodshed on an almost daily basis. as close as they could to the real stories of violence tearing the country apart and that is what we're focusing on today in our series on the events that shaped. apparent after a massive regional arab spring and in the wake of that the next contact of a pro-democracy movement and a revolution or civil war was not what was happening in. the media. people who think what about. the politics and diplomacy that.

i remember was a training session of the syrian football team and the coach was very angry with. his players were practicing. and then i moved my head like just like this and i saw two helicopters flying very low. and firing. and there was a group. living life as usual and just. me and my colleagues were live in the local t.v. station there was a few blocks away most likely. people had been killed and what struck you was the coexistence of those two. realities the. most interesting interaction for me with us happened before and after the interview obviously in that case. i asked him if he's afraid.

said no. it's a great. moment when the you believe the person or not and the only reason you know if he's right or wrong. i think series becoming. a country that is totally. wired and don't surprise anybody and like in the case of for iraq paul this harm was done to syria but the substantial help of the outsiders on the guise of democratic. and i do stay with us if you can here at r.t. for more twenty twelve recalls from. sliding ever closer to what it has become known as the fiscal cliff with barack obama hosting another last minute emergency meeting later today for weeks the republicans and democrats are trying to reach

a deal on how to reduce the national deficit if they don't billions of dollars in tax hikes and spending cuts automatically take effect on january the first activist and journalist says it's not the deadlock that bothers him but rather what has already been agreed upon. the real problem in my eyes is not the fact that they can't reach an agreement but rather that they have reached an agreement on many fundamental things the grievance they have reached is that neither of them are going to advocate put more money in the hands of working people they have no problem whatsoever removing a trillion dollars or three trillion dollars from the economy and delivering it to the bankers they did that inside of twenty days back in two thousand and eight and again in two thousand and nine was very little discussion. everyone agrees on both sides of the aisle that sums sort of reduction in benefits from social security and

medicare is inevitable quote unquote well you know the rest of us don't believe that it's inevitable or even that it's necessary and certainly not the best that it's not desirable yet the agreement between the democrats and republicans on these fundamental issues is in my mind more important than their disagreement that the posturing that they're doing for the media basically to try to blame each other for the you know going over the so-called cliff it's not that one or as promised let's get into it now they are starting with the former egyptian president hosni mubarak has been a return to the hospital after his health took a turn for the worse the eighty four year old was ordered into by the state prosecutor mubarak who led egypt for three decades life in prison for failing to protect protesters killed in the arab spring last year meanwhile current president mohamed morsi has launched an investigation into opposition leaders he accuses of supporting efforts to depose. you. are turning our attention to india now and

a twenty three year old female victim of a gang rape in new delhi remains critical after she was fun to singapore for treatment of the cases sparked mass outrage and a wave of violent protests with people demanding the death penalty for those involved meanwhile another victim of a sexual assault committee. suicide after being pressured to drop the case. are just about piddling bell and is going is up for another edition of crossfire. humanises day starts at five am even earlier in the winter tending to his flock of three hundred sheep in the mountains and plains of t.v. thirty five years old it wasn't the life he dreamt of having studied accounting but he dition and familiar duty dictated that he would take on the care of these

animals after his father has just made camp at their winter farm stage setting up his ute judicial to fenian round tent made of diskin peace peace be back amongst his family as his job is a lonely one and tough going out in all weathers braving extremes of plus to minus forty degrees celsius just get on with them there are certain difficulties there's not enough time for everything i'm almost alone my sister works with my mother my mother is seventy five she's very old and you know i miss mountains when i'm in town and i spend a lot of time here right now probably so on the survey i simply carrying out the work that his father did and his father before him nothing has changed over many many centuries and that's half the problem it's hard work and many people don't want to come into the in street now and it's really fit there could die out altogether. it's difficult to manage everything alone i used to have people who

helped me but they were no good they didn't take care of the sheep with all their heart they hurt the cattle. with more people leaving than coming to the countryside the region's government is having to act making the life of a herd and more attractive than promising largest subsidies for produce and livestock and organizing cooperatives for the sale of de products to ensure the herder gets a higher fair price i asked sympathizes with those youngsters leaving for an easier more profitable life there in the public's capital because ill but he no longer wishes to join them he enjoys his pastoral way of life and looking for a helper who shares his enthusiasm with more time on his hands he says matter of fact he can start to look for you wife.